By NOEL MURPHY
LEIGH Sleightholme is one of Geelong’s best kept secrets – probably because he’s rarely in Geelong.
But next month the Newtown-bred singer and dancer, a star of stage and screen, will front his home town in a knockout show Boys in the Band with a kitbag of the world’s best-known musical hits.
Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons, The Beatles, Bee Gees, Platters, Jackson 5, Beach Boys, Drifters, Simon and Garfunkel and Backstreet Boys are just some of the iconic acts the revue emulates in a show that has thrilled audiences country-wide and overseas.
The show features classics such as Walk Like a Man, Sherry, Can’t Buy Me Love, Let it Be, Hey Jude, Imagine, Blame it on the Boogie, ABC, Unchained Melody, Bridge Over Troubled Water, Surfin’ USA, Good Vibrations, Night Fever and Staying Alive plus medleys of the biggest mega-hits the world has known.
Sleightholme is a seasoned showman credits including Japanese produtions of hit Queen tribute show We Will Rock You and Wicked: The Musical.
His Australian work has included Disney’s High School Musical, Mama Mia!, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, Storm and The Man From Snowy River with David Atkins.
Sleightholme lives in Sydney these days after leaving Geelong and spending several years on the Gold Coast too where he attended secondary school. He worked his way into the entertainment game as a 16-year-old in a country-and-western show at Warner Brothers MovieWorld.
Sleightholme stayed with MovieWorld for four years before his 2005 musical theatre debut in the Queen show.
A move to Sydney suited work and his career has burgeoned ever since.
Two of the industry’s most respected and experienced entertainers/producers, David Malek and Dale Burridge, have created Boys in the Band with meticulous detail. It has become one of Australia’s most successful musical productions in recent years, with numerous sold-out concerts, festival dates and special appearances at prestigious corporate events around the globe.
Geelong Performing Arts Centre hosts Boys in the Band on 15 April.
